


how nice it would be

by alderations



Series: indigo [3]
Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Aftercare, Come Sharing, Creampie, Enthusiastic Consent, Exhibitionism, First Time, Light Dom/sub, Multi, Multiple Orgasms, Nonbinary Character, Oral Sex, Other, Overstimulation, Penis In Vagina Sex, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Polyamory, Praise Kink, Semi-Public Sex, Smut, Threesome, Unsafe Sex Between Immortals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:22:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25904287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alderations/pseuds/alderations
Summary: It’s been a month since they kissed the first time, and Lyf hasn’t moved things any farther, both because they’ve been single for literal decades and because they’re still recovering from… a lot of things.(Marius explains the space pirate polycule. Lyf is down.)
Relationships: Lyfrassir Edda/Marius von Raum, Raphaella la Cognizi/Lyfrassir Edda, Raphaella la Cognizi/Marius von Raum, polymechs
Series: indigo [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1869556
Comments: 16
Kudos: 150





	how nice it would be

**Author's Note:**

> warnings: playful/performative possessiveness, overstimulation & crying, light D/s (mostly from Raphaella), unprotected sex between immortals. (please let me know if I missed anything/you'd like me to tag anything else!)

“So—so here’s the thing,” Marius starts. “We have an… arrangement, kinda? I mean, we don’t really talk about it that much, but everyone’s a part of it. Except Nastya, obviously, and Ivy tends to keep to herself since the rest of us aren’t that into, y’know, sexual reading, and the—”

“You’re rambling,” Lyf interrupts with a hand on his chest. “I’ve walked in on almost everyone on this ship making out with everyone else. I have a decent idea of how relationships work around here.”

This apparently throws off Marius’s whole groove, maybe since he doesn’t realize just how obvious his crewmates are? Lyf struggles to understand how one person can be so oblivious sometimes. “Ah. Okay. Well. The  _ thing  _ is. I was, um, I used to be part of this arrangement.”

“I figured. Do you think I don’t notice you staring dreamily at Brian?”

Marius blushes, which is adorable, even if it makes him look like he’s considering doing something evil every time. “I didn’t—I haven’t done anything with anyone else since we started, y’know, canoodling! I want that to be clear. Like, yeah, they’re all really hot, but I’m kinda wildly in love with you and that comes first for me.”

“I know,” Lyf replies, smirking up at Marius in a way they know will short-circuit his brain. “But you miss fooling around with your friends?”

He frowns. “I mean, not necessarily, I just… okay, yeah. That’s not why I brought it up, though. I just wanted you to  _ know  _ that I’ve, uh, fucked pretty much everyone on the ship. If that’s a deal-breaker for you. And I wanted to lay it out on the table, ‘cause I’m not sure what  _ your  _ comfort level would be, but some—some interested parties have, uh, expressed interest. In you. If you—if you get what I’m getting at.”

It’s hard to follow Marius when he’s trying so hard to beat around the bush, but his meaning gets through soon enough and suddenly Lyf’s face is blazing hot. Sure, they know that hooking up on the Aurora is pretty much open season for most of the Mechanisms. And sure, they’d guessed that Marius probably missed the rest of the crew, given that he has one hell of a libido. But the other Mechs wanting—wanting  _ them?  _ “Oh.”

“It’s okay if you don’t want to, we can pretend I never brought it up, it’s—”

“Shut up and let me think, Marius.” Lyf swallows. “You’re asking if I want to  _ join  _ the giant polycule? Or if I’d rather you stayed out of it? Just to clarify.”

Marius’s eyes are wide, and his throat works as he struggles to actually be forthcoming for once. Apparently he’s only blunt when he’s practicing the world’s worst bedside manner. “Uh. Join. I didn’t know how this conversation was gonna go, if you want me all to yourself I’m fine with that, if you’re okay with me fooling around but you don’t want to get involved, that’s cool, if you’ve secretly been lusting after the crew this whole time, then, uh. I believe the feeling is mutual for most members.”

Lyf is starting to believe that the entire past few months of their life have been a fever dream, but they’re not going to question it now. “I don’t think I’ve been all that secret about it,” they murmur, catching Marius’s eyes with their own. “I would be… very enthusiastic about being a part of the arrangement.”

Their heart does something that would probably be lethal to a mortal human when Marius grins down at them. “Well! Good. I will pass the news along, unless you want me to wait. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think this waffle is burning.” He turns back to the waffle maker, which  _ is  _ smoking, but it’s a reasonable amount of smoke for literally any situation involving the Mechanisms, so Lyf hasn’t said anything. They’re making breakfast around one in the afternoon ship time, because they missed Brian’s home cooking and Marius was determined to make it up to Lyf. With burnt waffles. His attempts are adorable, so Lyf allows it.

While Marius chips away at the bits of batter caked to the waffle iron, Lyf turns to find Jonny standing in the doorway, watching them with an unamused grimace. “Am I interrupting something?”

“Just breakfast,” Marius responds, voice sunny. “Want a waffle?”

“No.” Despite his hesitance, Jonny strolls over to join them, where Lyf is sitting on the counter and surveying Marius’s assorted failures. “What the fuck did you  _ do  _ to that machine?”

Marius shrugs. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Evidently giving up on decoding Marius von Raum, Jonny turns to Lyf instead and crosses his arms over his chest. “You get off on this or what?”

“I’m not sure yet. Stick around for a few minutes, and maybe we’ll find out.”

Marius coughs, though Lyf isn’t sure whether he’s more surprised by Lyf admitting their attraction to his wild incompetence, or that they’re somewhat flirting with Jonny. “Gross,” Jonny sneers.

“Mmhm. Oh, by the way, I’m not sure if my taste in men is an enormous turn-off for you. But Marius and I were just discussing the… relationship arrangement on this ship.”

Jonny raises an eyebrow, while Marius has stopped pretending to scrape at the burnt waffle. “Elaborate?”

“I informed him,” Lyf continues, keeping up their half-assed veneer of the snooty academic, “that you are all  _ deeply  _ attractive people, and that I would be more than interested in getting to know you better. Physically.”

At that, Jonny finally cracks a sardonic smile. Within two steps, he’s in Lyf’s space, and Lyf can smell the whiskey and blood and  _ heat  _ pouring from him. He’s horrifying in so many ways, yes, but exhilarating in even more. “So Marius has deigned to share you after all?”

“Yep,” Marius squeaks. When Lyf looks over at him, every inch of his face is bright red, and his metal hand is gripping the waffle iron tight enough to crack the plastic.

“Mm. Good.” Rough as he is, Jonny still takes the time to telegraph his movements, giving Lyf space to turn him down if they’re not interested. But when his hand grips their chin and pulls their face down to his, they have no intention of doing anything other than melting into him. Jonny’s kisses are surprisingly soft, with just an edge of teeth as if he’s trying to compensate for his needy mouth. By the time he pulls away, Lyf is  _ well  _ acquainted with his tongue and rubbing their thighs together to fight off some of the heat blooming between them.

Jonny looks them over once more, still holding them by the chin, and apparently approves of what he sees. “Shall I share the good news?”

“Ple-ease,” Lyf whines.

“I’m sure the rest of the crew will be ecstatic.” Jonny lets go of Lyf and turns to Marius, who is watching them in awestruck silence. Lyf isn’t sure, but it looks like he’s so aroused that everything else in his brain has either given up or exploded. “What are you looking at?”

“Uh,” Marius answers. His mouth is hanging open like he has something else to say, but he can’t seem to form words.

Jonny rolls his eyes. “Horny bastard. Come here.” The kiss he gives Marius is rougher and handsier than what Lyf got, and they can hear Marius whimpering into his mouth as his flesh hand reaches for Jonny’s ass. He doesn’t get there in time, before Jonny bites his lip one more time and then walks out of the kitchen, leaving Marius holding the half-shattered waffle iron in one hand.

“Marius?” Lyf nudges him with one foot, which barely has an effect. They don’t think they’ve ever seen someone’s pupils so dilated—and transport officers see a  _ lot  _ of head injuries, so that’s saying something. “Marius. You still in there?”

That’s what it takes to bring him back to himself, apparently, because Marius drops the waffle iron and surges toward Lyf. His lips crash into theirs hard enough to bruise, while his hands latch onto Lyf’s hips and pull them forward until they’re barely balanced on the edge of the counter, their legs wrapped around him. “Lyfrassir,” he pants, falling back into his playful teasing. “Is it just me, or was that  _ incredibly  _ fucking hot?”

“No arguments here,” Lyf breathes. Their eyes flick back and forth between Marius’s mouth and his shirt collar, which is buttoned low enough to show a curl of chest hair. It has been a  _ very  _ long time since they got laid. “Are you… do you want…?”

“Desperately. Are you sure, though?”

It’s been a month since they kissed the first time, and Lyf hasn’t moved things any farther, both because they’ve been single for literal decades and because they’re still recovering from… a lot of things. And Marius hasn’t pushed, apparently content to make out with them for hours and fall asleep in their arms every night. Right now, though, Lyf can feel him hard and desperate where his hips grind into them absentmindedly, and that’s enough to break the horny dam inside them, because they’re already reaching for his belt buckle. “Yes. Very.”

“In—in the kitchen? I’m not complaining, it’s a long walk back to my room, but—”

“If anyone walks in on us,” Lyf murmurs against his lips, “that’s one less person we have to tell, yes?”

Marius shudders at the thought. Alright, so he’s got an exhibitionist streak; that’s not surprising. “Can—what do you want to do? I’m flexible. Literally and metaphorically. You can do whatever you want with me and I’ll thank you, Gods, I want you so bad.” He’s still rolling his hips toward theirs, slow but insistent enough that Lyf’s breath starts to stutter.

“I-I like being fucked,” they reply. “Want you close to me.”

“Absolutely,” he breathes, watching their skilled fingers undo his belt and reach down to palm him through his underwear. “Oh. Oh,  _ fuck,  _ Lyf.”

They smirk up at him. “Yeah?”

“Sh-shut up.” Marius bucks into their touch, his brow crinkling as if he can’t keep his face under control anymore. “Can I, uh, could I take your shirt off?”

Lyf withdraws his hand, only for Marius to whine and press closer to them, chasing the contact. “Go for it.”

They’ve spent enough time close together that Marius knows Lyf’s body pretty well at this point, but his eyes still widen in surprise when he sees the silver barbells through their nipples. “Can I touch…?”

“Please,” Lyf sighs. They’re pretty ambivalent about having breasts at all—dysphoric sometimes, unbothered others—but watching Marius roll their piercings through his fingers, reverent and hungry, feels  _ delightful.  _ He reaches down and kisses from the center of their chest down to their belly button, before moving one hand to their waistband. “Marius,” they interrupt him. “I’m not about to sit here naked on the kitchen counter until you take  _ something  _ off.”

The corners of his eyes crinkle joyfully. “That’s fair,” he laughs, before grabbing the bottom of his shirt and pulling it off over his head. Lyf thinks that it’s going to get stuck for a moment, as the sleeves catch on Marius’s broad shoulders and the buttons strain, but he escapes in one piece and stands between their legs with his chest flushed as red as the rest of him. “Better?”

“Extraordinarily.”

Marius just bites his lip and goes back to pulling Lyf’s pants down, apparently determined to tease them as much as possible. Even once they’re fully naked and raking their nails through the wild curls of hair on his chest, he just watches them. “Marius. Are you just going to stand there all afternoon?”

“I’m savoring the moment,” he offers in weak self-defense. “I’d like to remember what it’s like to be a man who’s about to eat you out for the first time.”

There’s no breath left in Lyf’s lungs to respond to that, though Marius waits for their eager nod before sliding to his knees and nosing his way up their thighs. Any moment now, he’ll realize  _ just  _ how wet they are, and Lyf prepares for the teasing to continue. Instead, he presses a line of soft kisses from their thigh to the edge of their hole, then laps at them like he’s going to starve to death if he doesn’t taste them  _ immediately.  _ A tremor passes through their body, gentle at first and then persistent as Marius nudges through their hair to suck their clit between his lips.

“Marius,” they pant, only to bring one fist up to stifle themself. “Mmph, please—please…”  
He shakes his head, refusing to pull back from his work, and reaches up to grab their elbow. “Wanna hear you,” he murmurs into their skin. Those words alone are enough to make Lyf whine, but then his lips and tongue start working at them in earnest and they can no longer control the sounds they’re making. They’ve had plenty of time to ponder the merits of violinist fingers (or metal fingers, for that matter), but somehow they never considered that Marius would have such a deliciously skilled mouth. By the time he slides his middle finger into them, they’re already cresting the wave of their first orgasm, which rolls up from their belly and leaves them flushed and twitching in its aftermath. Marius doesn’t stop, apparently egged on by the way their moans grow louder and more desperate. It’s just on the right side of overwhelming, threatening to tip over when Marius presses a second thick, callused finger into them, but he keeps going until they come on his mouth again and then, finally, drag him away by the hair. “Too much?” he asks, smirk shining where their wetness coats his lips.

“Can you just fuck me already,” Lyf growls.

“Yes sir. Absolutely. Right away.” Despite his enthusiasm, Marius still takes his time standing up and adjusting Lyf’s hips to the angle he wants. They whimper when his cock slides against them, so close to where they want him and yet— _there._ The head presses into them, and then Marius stills again, apparently giving Lyf time to adjust even though he’s trembling with restraint. _“Fuck,_ Lyf,” he whispers, forehead pressed against theirs.

Lyf can only answer in shaking gasps. It has really been a long time, and after two orgasms, Marius’s touch might as well set them on fire. They hitch their thighs higher around his waist, trying to encourage him to get a move on, but he stays there until they finally remember how to string words together. “Ple-ease— _ ugh _ —can you  _ move  _ already?”

“So demanding,” laughs Marius. His voice is strained, too, like it’s taking everything in him to moderate his pace. “Let me be gentle with you.”

They’re about to protest, because he gives gentle enough head and they want him to  _ fuck  _ them, but then he starts to move and the words fizzle out on their lips. Marius is big enough to make them gasp when he finally bottoms out, and Lyf can feel every shift of his hips as he builds into a steady, rocking rhythm. It occurs to them that they’ve never fucked anyone bare before, and, well, that’s a perk of immortality that they haven’t considered yet. And  _ gods, _ if it’s going to be anyone, they’re glad it’s Marius.

The contrast between his hands, tenderly cradling Lyf’s face and stroking down their back to pull them closer, and his cock hard and insistent inside them is delightful. He knows it, too, because he draws back to flash Lyf a cocky smirk when they shiver and moan into his shoulder. “Are we gonna— _ ah _ —get, um, murdered for f-fuh—fucking on the kitchen counter?”

“Meh. Most likely to do that is Jonny, and he knew  _ exactly  _ what he was doing when he kissed you like that.” Lyf knows that the possessive rasp in his voice is all for show, but it doesn’t stop the heat fluttering in their chest. They love feeling wanted by him, feeling his calloused fingers dig into their hips as he shifts from cautious grinding to firm thrusts, feeling his teeth scrape against their jawbone like a promise of something sharper. “Besides, something tells me you wouldn’t mind being walked in on.”

Lyf can’t control the noise their throat makes at the thought. Apparently encouraged, Marius shifts his angle a bit and snaps up into them, earning a yelp and a shudder. “Do that—again? Please,” they beg.

Marius does, because he’s never one to pass up good feedback, and because Lyf twitches around him on every stroke and the feeling is exhilarating. “You like it deep?” He feels their nod more than sees it, since he’s still mouthing at their neck in patterns that only he can understand. “Hm. I think I can help you with that.”

Before Lyf can ask what he’s talking about, he picks them up off the counter, pausing to make sure their legs are still firmly wrapped around him, and carries them over to the kitchen table without pulling out for an instant. It’s been a  _ really  _ long time since Lyf slept with someone who could manhandle them like this. “What are you…  _ ah!  _ Mmph!”

Laid out on the table, Marius has the space to untangle their legs from his waist and prop them up on his shoulders, which he does before leaning forward just enough to run his fingers through their hair while he continues where he left off in fucking them. He’s right—now that they’re no longer half-sliding down the counter, Lyf can take his entire cock with every thrust, and their gasps turn to needy cries as the tightness of another orgasm builds in their chest. “How’s that?” Marius asks, smug enough to prove that he already knows the answer.

“F-fucking— _ harder,”  _ demands Lyf.

“Whatever you say, my love.” He leans forward a bit more, bracing his hands on either side of their waist, and uses his weight to drive into them faster and deeper until they’re clenching around him and pleading for him to touch them, make them come again,  _ anything.  _ One hand palming their clit is all it takes, and their fingers scramble helplessly on the table beneath them as they fall apart for the third time. When they come back to themself, Marius has shifted again, letting one of their legs fall to the side and give him more room to touch them while he fidgets with the angle of his thrusts. “You just get more and more sensitive, don’t you?”

Lyf finally gets a grip on his arm, desperate for  _ something  _ to hold onto. “I—I’m—if y-you ke-ep— _ fuck!”  _ They can’t string together words, because Marius finds the spot he was looking for, and he slows his hips to a steady roll to slide against it. “Fuckfuckfuck you’re—you’re—Marius I c-can’t…”

“Can’t what? Do you need me to stop?” He’s already slowing down, face suddenly lucid with concern.

“No keep d-doing that keep fucking me please please Marius sh- _ it  _ wa-anna c-come again I’m gonna f-fucking…” Their voice tapers off into a ragged groan when they finally remember that they  _ also  _ have hands, and they remove one from Marius to take care of themself on their own terms. Gods, they’re soaked. Marius is just grinding into their g-spot now, which evidently gives him enough brainpower to lean down and tug one of their nipples between his teeth. This time, they scream as their orgasm hits them, burning prickling rushing through their limbs, but they can barely hear their own senseless pleas through the ringing in their ears. “You feel so  _ good,”  _ they manage after another minute of writhing under him.

Marius’s face is pressed into the center of their chest, lips moving like he’s praying. Worshipping them. Knowing him, he very well could be. “So do you,” he pants into their skin. “You— _ fuck  _ I feel you getting wetter every time you come, Lyf. And you’re— _ ngh _ —s-so tight, squeezing around me like that, I’m. I’m so close.”

It takes a substantial effort for Lyf to open their eyes all the way and prop themself up on their elbows, but it’s worth it to watch the sweat bead on Marius’s chest and the blush rise in his cheeks. “Are you—please come in me, Marius. Wanna know what it feels like. Want you to—”

They’re cut off by Marius’s lips crashing into theirs, and seconds later he’s burying his cock in them and crying out into their mouth and trembling between their legs. With one hand in his hair, Lyf pulls back enough to see his face, wanting to memorize the crease between his eyebrows and his mouth hanging open like there’s not enough air in the world for him. After a good ten seconds of whimpering and spasming—and Lyf doesn’t miss the way he leans into their hand, even when they tug at his hair—his eyes finally open again. “Holy  _ fuck,” _ he breathes, cracking a smile when Lyf starts to laugh. “You are incredible. I love you so much, you—”

“Why do I have a feeling you’re not planning to clean up after yourself, von Raum?”

Startled by the voice from the doorway, Marius jumps and pulls out of Lyf fast enough to make them wince. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about, surely,” he blusters. Lyf is not surprised to find that Raphaella’s voice interrupting them makes them somehow even wetter. Though that could also be the come starting to dribble out of their cunt.

Raphaella has noticed this as well, because she appears in front of Lyf within seconds and nudges Marius aside, leaving Lyf suddenly cold. “Rumor has it,” she smiles, “that our dear Lyfrassir is joining the party, so to speak. Is that so?”

Lyf nods fast enough to make themself dizzy, because they very much want to know what Raphaella plans to do to them, exhausted and wrung out as they are. “Yes ma’am,” they add, just in case the nodding doesn’t get their enthusiasm across. Out of the corner of their eye, they see Marius shifting from one foot to the other.

“Wonderful news. Especially since Marius here is notorious for leaving his messes for the rest of us to deal with.” She gives Marius a sharp look, and he steps around to the other side of the table without a word, where Lyf can reach up and touch his face absentmindedly. “Do you have a safeword, Lyf?”

“Colors are fine,” they respond. For a moment, they start to ask if they need one right now, before remembering… well, everything about Raphaella. They’re perfectly happy to be a test subject at the moment.

She grins down at them, revealing teeth just a  _ bit  _ too pointy for a human, and then Lyf feels Marius taking a gentle hold of their wrists and pinning their arms above their head. The sudden exposedness draws a needy sound from their throat. “How many times have they come already, Marius?” Raphaella asks.

“Four.” Marius’s response is instant, obedient,  _ breathless. _

“Hmm. Now the question is how many more times before I’m finished cleaning  _ your  _ come out of them.” Lyf’s hips buck toward her reflexively. “Now, we can’t have that! It seems I need to hold you still.”

She sinks to her knees, her hands pinning Lyf down by the hips, and then they feel her tongue tracing its way up their slit, collecting everything that’s oozed out of them and lapping it up with an eagerness that they’d admire with a clearer mind. She probes their hole with her tongue, humming, while Lyf’s hands twitch in Marius’s grip and their eyes flutter shut. Even though she hasn’t come close to their dick yet, they’re tense and shaking with the need to come again. But Raphaella is determined to take her time with them, lowering one hand to spread them wider and nibbling now and then to keep things interesting. By the time she finally starts to move upward, their hips are jerking toward her in a fruitless search for friction. “Clearly you need someone other than Marius to teach you some patience,” she muses, not that Lyf can understand human language with her breath hot on their clit. All the same, she takes mercy on them and starts to suck at them in earnest, still pinning them down so they can only shudder when they crash over the edge.

Unlike Marius, Raph doesn’t believe in breaks. As soon as Lyf’s eyes open again, she looks up at them with a challenge in her gaze, and two of her fingers press into their cunt like she’s searching for something. “I know Marius, and I know that he  _ loves  _ to come deep inside his lovers. So I’m guessing there’s still some inside you, especially since you’re clamping around me so nicely! Oh, those aftershocks must feel lovely, don’t they? You’re being so good for me.”

“P-p-please,” Lyf cries, thrashing against Marius’s hold. “Too—too much, Raph, I’m so s-sensitive.”

She laughs like an angel and crooks her fingers inside them, finding the right spot to make them writhe with remarkably little effort. “Are you, now? That’s a shame, because I don’t intend to stop.” Before they can protest, she leans back down and starts mouthing at their clit again, toothier this time, and Lyf wails. Where Marius was all warmth and confidence, Raphaella has a deadly precision that leaves them breathlessly overwhelmed with every passing second that she deigns to touch them, and it doesn’t falter when they shiver and gush onto her fingers. “There it is,” she declares. “That’s  _ exactly  _ what I wanted, Lyf! And because of that, you deserve to come again. Hush—no, it’s alright, I know you can do it.” Her reassurances don’t break through the fog in Lyf’s ears as one more orgasm, slower and heavier than the rest, wracks them. Once again, she fingers them through it, kissing up their belly and pausing to roll their piercings under her tongue. Only then does she finally draw her fingers out and offer them to Marius. “Your love tastes  _ amazing.” _

“I know,” Marius smirks, even as he opens his mouth to accept her offering. As his tongue swirls around her fingers, she leans forward to kiss him, keeping her hand in place so she can hold Marius right where she wants him. It looks almost violent from where Lyf lies, a mess of fingers and teeth and tongues, and they’re so transfixed that it takes them several seconds to realize that there are tears streaming down their face.

Moments later, Raphaella and Marius pull away and look down at them. “O-oh! Lyf, sweetheart,” she soothes, wrapping her arms around their shoulders. “Marius, let go of their hands.”

“Oh! Yes.” Once their arms are free, Lyf follows Raph until they’re sitting up and leaning into her embrace. “How… was that?” Marius sounds nervous, as if Lyf  _ didn’t  _ just come six times.

“Fantastic,” they mumble into Raphaella’s shoulder. “S-sorry, I don’t—this doesn’t usually happen. Just overwhelmed, I’ll b-be okay.”

Before they can even finish their thought, Marius steps around the table and hugs them from behind so they’re completely enveloped between him and Raph. “Don’t be sorry, love. Crying is a completely normal response to being tortured by a mad scientist.”

Raphaella smacks his head lightly, but the wet laugh that they get out of Lyf is worth it. “You didn’t safeword, so I assumed you were okay with a bit of torture.”

They pull back enough to look her in the eyes, face open and still flushed with arousal. “More than okay. No one has  _ ever  _ made me come like that. In a good way.”

“Yeah, since when are you a squirter?”

Lyf snorts. “I don’t know! I’ve never… tried?” They slide off the table and onto their feet, a bit overcome with the way Marius and Raphaella are both studying them, only for their knees to buckle. “Shit,” they grumble when Marius catches them and swings them into his arms.

“Jokes aside,” says Raph, “I can sanitize the fucking  _ kitchen table  _ if you want to take care of them, Marius. They need some quality cuddling time, in my professional opinion.”

Marius stands up straight, indignant, and Lyf curls closer into his chest. “I’m sorry,  _ who  _ is the doctor on this ship? Oh, and get the counter too, while you’re at it.”

“Disgusting. I can’t believe I encouraged this behavior.”

“Jonny started it,” Lyf calls as Marius turns on his heel and heads back toward his room. “Are we just gonna leave our clothes in there, or…?”

Marius puts a valiant effort into shrugging without jostling them too much. “I’ll go back for them later. Right now, I’m thinking about a bath. That sound good to you?”

“Yes, but you don’t have to dote on me like—”

They’re cut off by an indignant huff from Marius. “Don’t start with me! We take aftercare  _ very  _ seriously on this ship. If you think I’m doting, just wait until Jonny doms you.” He shivers. “Doesn’t happen often, since he’s such a fucking brat, but you don’t know  _ doting  _ until you’ve been cuddled by Jonny d’Ville.”

Lyf makes careful note of that entire concept. For later. Right now, they’re struggling to stay awake in Marius’s arms, even more so when he lays them down on his bed to fill the bath and then starts combing the tangles out of their hair with his fingers. This is all very new to Lyf. They’ve had their hair braided by lovers before, a few times, but no one has ever cared for them with such loving attention that they’re near tears in minutes. And when they start crying again, leaning back against Marius’s chest in the bathtub while he works shampoo through their hair, he holds them and kisses every inch of their face until they can string words together. “Do you want to talk about it?” he suggests, rubbing the back of their neck with dextrous fingers.

“I-I-I don’t know,” they reply. “‘M not sure what’s wrong, ‘cept I just l-love you a lot and I’m not used to—to being treated like this, it’s kinda a  _ lot  _ to handle. Y’know?”

Marius smiles and brushes a curl of wet hair away from their eyes. “I do know. And I can give you some space if it’s too much, I just wanted to be sure—”

“No!” They surprise themself with how fast the word spills from their mouth. “Please stay. It’s just… gonna take me a bit. To get used to. If that’s okay.”

The water is getting cold around them, but the casual slide of skin on skin is so comforting that Lyf hardly notices. “Of course it’s okay,” Marius assures them. “Seriously, you should’ve seen me the first time I slept with Brian. I was a blubbering mess for  _ hours.  _ We’ve gotta process our emotions somehow.”

“I’ll trust the expert, I guess,” Lyf mumbles into his neck.

“That’s the spirit! Besides, I may not be an  _ actual  _ medical expert, but I  _ am  _ the resident expert on Being In Love With Lyfrassir Edda, and that counts for something.”

Lyf can’t help but agree.

**Author's Note:**

> and with that... we have the final installment in the series. :) ok in all seriousness I already have an idea for other, more intense smut, but That's Neither Here Nor There! i love lyf. i care them. i have some very specific kinks. and nothing else to do with my time. also why would i bother making a fleshed-out headcanon for a character when i can just give them my exact body type lmao :')
> 
> Your comments mean *so fucking much* to me, so please consider leaving one if you made it this far! And if I need to tag something for you, please let me know - either here or anonymously on Tumblr if you'd rather. Find me on tumblr @alderations or at my ~SPARKLY NEW~ writing twitter @alderwrites! i love u all!!!


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